National dialogue not feasible - Yerodia

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yerodia said on Monday that the inter-Congolese dialogue provided for in the Lusaka ceasefire agreement was no longer feasible. “The inter-Congolese dialogue, of the type thought [possible] in July 1999, has become something that is no longer workable,” Reuters news agency quoted Ndombasi as saying. “You can’t have a dialogue without people to talk to. We are not going to organise the inter-Congolese dialogue with those who call themselves rebel leaders. If rebels return to the fold, those are the ones we’ll talk to,” he added. Yerodia was referring to some 3,500 rebels the government claims have surrendered in Katanga province in the southeast. There has been no independent confirmation of that surrender. The Constituent Assembly which the government intends to establish in Lubumbashi in August would be the precursor to an elected parliament and would be the appropriate place for a national dialogue, Reuters quoted Yerodia as saying.